In 1962, Czechoslovakia was closing in on a brutal recession — the sad underbelly of its central-planning "economic miracle" of the 1950s. The downturn would make buying cars a bit of a stretch, even for the country's pert little bourgeois base. (A few years later, the Russian tanks would roll in to completely ruin the party.)

But when this optimistic little ad was created, Czechoslovakia was a happy place, where motorists were prone to random highway slaloming, running from indifferent motorcycle cops, implying black-tie threesomes, whistling and four-wheel drifting on cobblestones. It was a gothic vision of Beach Boys-era California, filtered through a hazy, beer-soaked bohemian lens with a swing-jazz soundtrack. Bless their hearts, it worked. At least for a while.